Educational device for teaching reading.



V. M. HILLYER. EDUCATIONAL DEVICE FQR TEACHING READING. APPLICATIONFILED DEC. 28. I916.

1,224,742.; Patented May1,1917.

gh ont VIBGIL MORES HILLYER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

EDUCATIONAL nnvron non TEACHING READING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 1, 19M.

Application filed December 28, 1916. Serial No. 135,255.

To all w ham it may concern:

Be it known that I, VIRGIL M. HILLYER, a citizen of the United States,anda resident of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented acertain new and useful Improvement in Educational Devices for TeachingReading, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates generally to educational devices, and moreparticularly to devices of this nature for teaching read ing, my objectbeing to provide an improved device, extremely simple in constructionand operation, to teach reading by sound, to train a child to recognizeautomatically the sounds of combinations of letters, called phonograms,that form the elements of all words, and thus to give him the key toreading and enable him in the shortest time to read new matterindependently and easily.

A further and more specific object is to provide an improved simple andinexpensive device, consisting of a card or holder, oblong or otherwisein shape, and capable of being readily handled by children, togetherwith parallel longitudinal shiftable tapes printed with initial lettersand phonograms, the tapes being relatively adjustable in slits in thecard or holder, with respect also to means forming a sight opening inthe card, through which the printed characters may be juxtaposed withoutan intervening part or space, and the slits forming guides for thetapes, being of the width of a single tape, with the slits on each sideof the sight opening offset from one another in the direction of thelength of the tapes, whereby the latter, though touching at their edgesin the sight opening, are prevented from slipping over or beneath oneanother, all inthe manner which will be presently made plain.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates my invention and forms apart of this specification I Figure 1 is an'elevation, illustrating thepractical use of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section taken substantially on line 22 of Fig.1, and

Fig. 3 is an elevation of the card or holder with the tapes removed.

Thus, with reference to these figures, my invention contemplates theprovision of a card or holder 10 formed of any suitable relativelystifl' material, capable of sustaining its shape and resisting too readybending or breaking, and the particular shape of which may be varied,the card or holder 10 as shown, being rectangular in shape with thecorners rounded, in order to obviate all relatively sharp projections.

This card or holder 10 is provided with spaced parallel slits 11,forming a continuous sight opening for both tapes, and located at asubstantially central point in order that the obverse faces of the tapes12 and 13, extending along the rear face of the card or holder 10 atintermediate points, maybe viewed, each of these tapes being threadedthrough guide slits l and 15 adjacent relatively opposite ends of thecard or holder 10, so as to maintain the same substantially inparallelism, and admit of their independent shifting movement to bringtheir different characters into registry with the sight opening.

lt'will be noted by reference to Fig. 3 in particular that the guideslits 14c and 15 of the tape 12 are independent of those of the tape 13,and laterally oifset with respect to the line of movement of the tape tobring the edges of the tape into close contact with one another at thesight opening, in order that there may be no obvious space or partbetween the tapes at this point, and a complete word may be read withoutundesirable intervening space or part between the letters thereof, theslits 14 at one side of the opening 11 and the slits 15 at the oppositeside thereof, being however offset with respect to one another in thedirection of the length of the tapes, so that, though closely adjacentone another at their edges within the sight opening in order that thespelled word may appear without a break, the tapes are, at the sametime, independently held and guided so as to preventthem from slippingover or beneath one another.

It is obvious that, with the obverse faces of the tapes provided withsuitable characters, as for instance initial letters upon the left handtape, and phonograms upon the right hand tape, great numbers of wordsmay be formed within the sight opening 11 by the relative shifting ofthe tapes, enabling the parent or teacher to pass rapidly in review theinitial letters which, taken with a phonogram such as at form numbers ofdifierent words, such as bat, cat, 4 t, 4 h t, 4 (C f t), LC p t It isfurther obvious that by the particular construction and guiding of thetapes, the words formed may be rendered practi cally continuous, withoutobvious division, and Without intervening parts or spaces, and the tapesare at the same time prevented from slipping or lapping over or beneathone another.

It is furthermore obvious that the device shown and described will, inaddition to its effectiveness and efliciency in the manner beforedescribed, be simple in its nature, capable of ready operation andhandling by young children,,and at the same time durable andinexpensive, and that the particular manner of forming the sightopeningprevents the tapes from falling away from the card or holderbetween the guide slits 14: and 15.

I claim 1. An educational device of the character described, comprisinga card or holder having an intermediate pair of slits formlng a sightopening, and having pairs of guide slits upon opposite sides of thesight opening, and the slits of each pair of which are offset laterally,character tapes threaded through the said guide slits with their obversefaces appearmg in the sight opening, and extending parallel with oneanother with their adjacent edges in close proximity between the guideslits and within the sight opening, said guide slits of each pair beingoflset from one another in the direction of the length and movement ofthe tapes, whereby to independently guide each tape and prevent thetapes from slipping over or beneath one another in use.

2. An educational device of the character described, comprising a cardhaving guide slits, and character tapes extending through the guideslits and partially exposed at the center of the card, the slits of eachtape being independent of the slits of the other tape and ofisetlongitudinally therefrom for the purpose described.

3. An educational device of the character described, comprising a cardhaving guide slits, character tapes extending through said guide slits,said guide. slits being independent of one another for each tape andoffset from one another laterally and longitudinally of the tapes, andsaid card having intermediate slits through which the tapes pass,'forming a continuously framed sight opening common to the tapes.

VIRGIL MORES HILLYER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of- Patents.

Washington, D. G.

